In what can only be described as a surprise move by Microsoft, Kinectimals (which appeared first on the Xbox 360 and then on Windows Phone 7) has made its way to the iPhone. Kinectimals arrived in the Apple App Store for sale for the iOS platform.

The Kinectimals release joins the recent Xbox LIVE and Halo Waypoint apps that were also released for the iOS platform. All three Microsoft releases are compatible with the iPhone 3GS and higher, third generation iPod Touch or higher, as well as the iPad.

The move by Microsoft to offer more iOS applications appears to be part of a strategy to bring the popular Microsoft experiences to the iOS platform. While Microsoft has not had a lot to say above this move, we suspect that we have not seen the end of Microsoft applications for the iOS platform. If they continue to be popular, the only real question is what is next?

The Windows Phone Marketplace is now offering 40,000 apps and it is growing by a rate of 165 apps a day.

It seems Redmond’s mobile OS is finally getting some traction from consumers and developers alike, but it still has a long way to go before it can match Apple’s or Google’s app portfolio.

A total of 10,882 apps were submitted in the last three months, which is a great improvement considering the rather slow start late last year. The marketplace carried about 8,000 apps in January 2011, so it has grown fivefold in under a year. Most of the new apps, some 68 percent, are free.

However, despite strong growth Windows Phone still has a lot of catching up to do. Apple currently has some 460,000 apps on offer, while Google boasts around 320,000.

In any case Windows Phone is slowly but surely emerging as a serious contender in the smartphone market and it will be interesting to see how things work out for Microsoft in 2012.

Microsoft claims that more than 500 developers have Emailed Microsoft about taking them up on their offer to become a Windows Phone 7 developer. Apparently, if you are a WebOS published developer, you could Email Microsoft at: thephone [AT] microsoft [DOT] com and Microsoft is apparently excited about being able to gain developers.

The bottom line is that Microsoft claims that they are committed to developers and will provide them with development kits, phones, tools, and training to make them successful. Microsoft claims they want these developers to get on board with Windows Phone 7.

If accurate and Microsoft has received 500 Emails with developers ready to move to Windows Phone 7, this could be a big help to Microsoft as they try to boost the number of applications available for the Windows Phone 7 platform.

Finnish phone maker Nokia announced that it will launch a six-month marketing campaign for its upcoming Windows Phone 7 handsets.

The campaign will cost Nokia $127 million and it is set to kick off in October. Microsoft will also lend a helping hand, since it has a vested interest in seeing Nokia succeed.

Nokia lost its edge in the smartphone market some time ago and it has a lot riding on its Microsoft partnership. Likewise, Windows Phone 7 adoption was rather slow and Redmond seems to believe that only Nokia can turn things around.

Open sourcers are a little worried that an important project is about to be killed off thanks to Nokia's involvement with Microsoft. Nokia's jump to Windows Phone 7 has meant that the Qt toolkit, is living a promise of continued investment, bonuses for developers who stick with the platform and even a phone or two that might use it.

But the word on the street is that the Qt project has stalled and its future is uncertain. What makes it important is that the Qt toolkit that drives the KDE desktop which is one of the most popular and widely used desktops in the world of open source.

Apparently the KDE team is thinking about taking control of the source code and rolling it into the core of its project.The main problem is that Qt will still be developed commercially and this is going to cause problems for those who might want to take control over the API, and the open source traditionalists.

Microsoft is hoping to interest punters in its much ignored Windows Phone 7 by sticking four new features under the bonnet including Turn-by-turn navigation, Bing Vision, Bing Audio, and SMS dictation.

Apparently Microsoft has worked out that a a free, built-in turn-by-turn navigation is one of the features that gives Android a leg up on Apple, so it is thinking that it wants some of that action. Turn-by-turn navigation appears to be in the Mango update and is probably the result of Microsoft's relationship with Nokia.

The Finnish phone maker already includes Ovi Maps and navigation with Symbian. In addition to that there will be Bing Vision which looks similar to Google Goggles. It will have a barcode and QR code scanner, can pick up Microsoft Tags, and can detect CDs, DVDs, Books, and text using OCR.

There will also be Bing Audio which is an app like SoundHound or Shazam. If you hold your phone up to a song, it will detect which song is playing and provide you links to download it in the Windows Marketplace for music.

Finally SMS dictation which will provide a voice-to-text service for SMS messages. It will be very cool, if it can understand your accent.

Software giant Microsoft has warned against using "homebrew solutions" to force an upgrade for Windows Phone 7 devices. Writing in his blog, Eric Hautala said that as an engineer and a gadget lover, he totally understood the impulse to tinker, but in this case his strong advice was to wait.

Microsoft is currently rolling out an upgrade to Windows Phone 7 devices that will bring features like cut and paste functionality. The two-part update started in late March. The first one updates the device registry, while the second update adds the meatier features like cut and paste, improved marketplace search, a fix for increased data consumption related to Yahoo Mail, and different background images while connected to Wi-Fi.

However it is taking its time and many think it is too slow. The developer behind the short-lived ChevronWP7 jailbreak for Windows Phone 7 has posted a new hack that let you bypass Microsoft and carriers to update your mobile operating system.

Hautala warned that if people attempt one of these workarounds, Microsoft can't say for sure what might happen to your phone. "You might not be getting the important device-specific software we would typically deliver in the official update. Or your phone might get misconfigured and not receive future updates."

Software giant Microsoft claims that it is winning the battle for the hearts and minds of developers for its Windows Phone 7 software.

Redmond said that there had been more than 1.5 million downloads of a tool kit to make applications for Windows Phone 7. It claims that this is a sign the operating system may be winning over developers.

Microsoft thinks the key to getting consumers to buy phones with its WM7 software on board is to have shedloads of apps available. To do this it needs developers writing them.

More than 36,000 developers have registered with the company, Microsoft said and there are 11,500 apps are available. Each WM7 customer downloads 12 apps a month.

So far it needs to do something that will pull the OS's nadgers out of the fire. Only two million WM7 phones have been sold, despite getting good reviews.

Apple has more than 350,000 apps available, and Android apps top 150,000. Analysts IDC amused the world this week by claiming that Apple would turn everything around in a couple of years and become the number two phone software maker behind Google.

Software giant Microsoft has resumed the roll-out of its first Windows Phone 7 update to Samsung phones after a glitch prompted the update to fail for certain users.

Redmond said sorry for the bug and worked out that it had fixed the problems that were preventing a small percentage of Windows Phones from installing the February software patch. It didn’t say much else about the fault.

It later added that 90 percent of people who received an update notification have installed the first new software patch successfully. Microsoft is saying that the patch is being rolled out to other phones this week and next week.

After checking with our Red V sources, they whisper to us that the news that WinRumors is reporting is accurate, and Verizon will be adding Windows Phone 7 devices in late March. AT&T was the first to market and offer the first Windows Phone 7 devices in the U.S.

As with Sprint, Verizon will also be adding HTC 7 Trophy to their lineup. The Sprint Windows Phone 7 offerings will arrive starting on March 20th, while Verizon will offer theirs shortly after that. Both offerings are said to feature the “NoDo” update, which adds “cut and paste” support.

While Windows Phone 7 has not lit the world on fire, it has for sure received attention with its very well done “animated tile interface” that makes the smart phone easy to use and a real competitor to other smartphone offerings. It remains to be seen if adding additional carriers will equal more sales; but to start with, Verizon is said to be offering the HTC 7 Trophy for $199 with a two-year contract.